Chapter 3 I Run Into the Fashion Police

I opened my eyes and grinned. Lucas was smiling at me too. He had been right, I was one of them. Ahead of me I saw kids in orange shirts much like the one Lucas had been wearing, fencing with each other or talking and playing games. The area wasn't pretty I'll admit. Some of the buildings were destroyed and there were places where the ground had been scotched but I also saw kids rebuilding them and more goatmen trying to grow the grass back by playing on their reed pipes.

"Welcome to Camp Half Blood," Kyle said. "The only safe place for demigods in the world."

"Ah hem," Lucas scoffed raising an eyebrow.

Kyle raised his hands in defence. "Hey I'm not going to admit New Rome is safe. Those guys mean trouble."

"They surrendered and left," Lucas argued. "The only attacked us because of their bad leader Octavian or whatever."

Kyle rolled his eyes. "Fine I don't care. This is one of the two places demigods or people like you three are safe. Soon you will all be claimed by your godly parents blah blah blah. Once you've been claimed, you will be sorted into a cabin where you will live and train with your brothers and sisters."

"I'm an only child," Jake said.

Kyle shook his head. "No you're the son of some greek god and since the greek gods have lots of kids you have lots of siblings. Tell me, who lives with you, you're mom or your dad?"

"Dad," Jake replied. "How did you know my mom left?"

"Everyone here has a missing parent or two. Now we know that you're related to one

of the goddesses. I think we can rule out Athena."

Lucas nudged him playfully but something with me didn't settle right. I had two parents not one and as far as I knew neither one of them had ever been married to anyone else. And if they weren't my real parents was Tallah my real sister or their real child?

Lando, the boy I had seen through the Iris message approached us looking scarred. "She made it then?" He said, not meeting my eye. "You actually found another one all by yourself?"

Lucas nodded and pumped his fist. "Told you I was right."

Lando bit his lip. "Parce is looking for you," he said. "You have to explain your mission to him yourself. He doesn't believe me when I tell him you succeeded. He wants to see you're actually alive."

"Parce," Lucas muttered. "He has no faith, no faith. Lando will you show Ella and the others around camp, Kyle you probably have a lot of paperwork to do."

Kyle nodded and they both went off in opposite directions.

Lando was a scrawnier version of Lucas but had the same black hair and nervous grin. I assumed the both must be from the same cabin. He stared at us for a moment before proceeding.

"Okay," he said. "Um did they already do the speech about you being children of the gods and stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah," Maggie said, "but I don't understand how the claiming works. I mean how will be know who are parent is?"

The three of us erupted in a collective gasp as ten doves suddenly flew out of no where and landed on Maggie's shoulders. Maggie herself was startled.

"Like that," Lando said. He reached out his finger and the doves started to violently peck him. "Yep, definitely Aphrodite," he said and drew back his finger. "I'll have Lacy show you your cabin in a second." Lando then stared at both me and Jake as if expecting us to erupt into flames. Neither of us did anything. "Okay then," Lando said shuffling forward. "As you can see are camp is still recovering from battle. Over there is where the strawberry fields used to be but the Romans trampled them during their siege."

I looked over and saw Maggie blushing fiercely and taking tiny steps with the doves on her shoulders. She looked a little overwhelmed and her entire face was a bubblegum pink. I would feel the same why if I'd just found out my mother was a greek goddess. I tried to remember, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty and her sacred animal was the dove. That didn't seem to bad. I started to think I wouldn't mind being her daughter as well. Part of me was wanting to get claimed because the curiosity was almost too much to handle. I wanted to know which one of my parents had been lying to me and why I had never known before now. There was a whole other world out here I realized and I had never even known about it.

When we finally ran into Lacy, Lando had just finished showing us the Big House where the camp meetings took place. She had been sitting on the porch with several more Aphrodite kids. They were all giggling with each other and pointing at people as they passed by. Lacy ran over when Lando called her and stared at Maggie, the doves still settled firmly on Maggie's shoulders seemed to attract the attention of the other Aphrodite girls as well.

"Another one?" Lacy seemed surprised. "I'm Lacy," she said, coaxing one of the doves off of Maggie's shoulders. As it flew away if left a trail of what seemed to be glitter that settled in Maggie's hair. "Welcome to Camp Half Blood, did you come with these two?" Lacy asked, looking at me and Jake.

Maggie shook her head. "Jake and I knew each other from school sort of. He was in some of my classes but we both knew the history teacher, Kyle I guess."

"And this is," Lacy said, looking at me.

"Ellie," Maggie faltered. "No Ella right? We just met."

Lacy looked at Lando. "Three new half bloods in one day and right after the attack too. If Maggie and Jake were spotted by Kyle then how did Ella get here?"

I felt the other Aphrodite kids shift their gaze to me. Immediately I could spot them as the popular girls and did not want them to think there was something wrong with me.

"Lucas," Lando sighed and Lacy looked confused. "Nevermind," he said. "He's back by the way. His mission was a success."

Lacy looked relieved. "I'll tell Piper she'll probably find out though at the council meeting tonight. I feel kind of bad stepping down. Piper deserves it though of course."

"Oh right I forgot," Lando said. "You're not the cabin leader anymore."

"Have you guys-" Lacy began but stopped herself.

Lando looked serious all of a sudden. "It's okay, I never knew him. Leo was suppose to be our cabin leader but well... of course."

There was an awkward pause that left me wondering why there had been so many changes in leaders. Lando couldn't mean that Leo had died could he? Maybe Piper and Leo were part of that team of demigods Lucas said had defeated the giants. That sounded pretty dangerous.

"Where is Piper anyway?" Lando said, breaking the silence.

Lacy shrugged. "I haven't really seen her around a lot. I'll show you the cabin anyway Maggie. Girls, want to come?"

I looked from Lacy to Lando then back to Lacy.

"Can I come?" I asked. For some reason I didn't feel like spending the rest of the day with a boy who kept sending me nervous glances like I wasn't meant to be there and might get him in trouble.

Lacy and the girls laughed and I felt a little embarrassed but they said sure and I followed.

We approached the circle of cabins made of all different material and different but similar styles. I knew the Aphrodite cabin at once because it looked like a barbie log cabin play set. The wood was painted pink and the windows had white frills around them. On the door there was a big white number 10.

"Home sweet home Maggie," Lacy said leading us to the door.

Inside the cabin there were several bunk beds lined up against the wall and I wasn't surprised to see a runway smack in the middle. Lights were hung from the ceiling that projected pink and yellow color onto the black floor. Behind it was a door labeled 'Community Closet'. I had never seen so much pink in my life.

"Piper," Lacy said, addressing the girl in the back of the room. "We have a new camper."

The girl turned around and saw me and Maggie standing shyly by the door. "Two?" she asked.

Lacy shook her head. "Just Maggie." Maggie waved her hand.

Piper gave her a warm smile. "Oh, well then welcome to cabin 10. You can take that bunk. It use to be mine before I became cabin leader. Speaking of which, Lacy do you know if there's a meeting tonight?"

Lacy nodded. "Yes, they switched them to every tuesday instead of thursday."

Maggie looked unsteadily around. Maybe it was all the pink, I would have been overwhelmed as well. She walked over to the bed Piper had pointed to and sat down. Rather than staying with the other girls who had started to giggle at me I inched a little closer to Maggie. At least she knew better what I was feeling right then.

"You figure it's real?" Maggie whispered to me as Lacy and Piper continued in their conversation.

I waited a second before answering. "I don't know," I said, "but I think I want it to be."